The Internet provides an open environment in which clients and servers or peers can exchange information that traverses multiple Internet Protocol (“IP”) networks managed by independent provider entities. Many business enterprises do not want to directly expose clients/servers to the Internet due to an elevated risk of attack. Instead, enterprises may choose to implement technologies to segregate their client/server communications from the Internet. Such technologies may include MPLS VPN, LTE MIP, LISP, and others. In some cases, an overlay VPN technology, such as IPsec, may also be used for securing traffic from branch office to data center. The enterprise may elect to transmit contextual metadata in the overlay tunneling protocol, which context should be preserved end-to-end.